Despite LA being known for its maniacal obsession with youthfulness, the art world is one market that often seems to politely abdicate from such tomfoolery - youth is known for being fickle and unreliable, and those are two traits that make most collectors very nervous.

However, youngin' gallery, Taylor De Cordoba, has proven to be a unique exception to the rule. I sat down with owners and full time lovers, Heather Taylor and Alex De Cordoba to find out what makes them the true "mavericks" (eh hem) of the art world. If this isn't a set up for an edgy indie rom-com, I don't know what is.

More Country Questions: Soft Wood Block

Juliette: Lets start at the very beginning, when did you guys meet?

Heather: Alex and I met in high school photography class and lost touch for a decade only to discover that we were living on the same street in West Hollywood. Art really united us, as we started going to exhibits and collecting work by young emerging artists.

Juliette: And what lead you to opening the gallery?

Alex: It was a series of angels and lucky twists of fate. Number one Jeff Poe. We went to an opening at Blum and Poe and he was like you need to talk to the guy who got us all in here.

Juliette: I think it takes a lot of balls to come to Culver City and not Chinatown or one of the younger markets. You're balls? They're big?

Heather: Well, it became really clear that this area was on the precipice of just exploding. And we knew from the beginning that we didn't want to be a gallery that just threw parties. We saw a hole in the market place for the generation of collectors who are young professionals and are really excited about building their collection. And, simultaneously, it also felt like there was a little bit of a hole in the market for amazing serious contemporary art that was in a little bit of a lower price range.

Juliette: In terms of your program's overall aesthetic, I'm struck by this recurring humanist quality, a return to drawing with this incredible dreamy tactile quality. Was this cohesiveness on purpose?

Alex: Our decision making process in terms of what we decide to exhibit is very simple. It's a gut reaction. When you first see a piece of work if you get excited or passionate about it, you want to share it with everybody else. We haven't gone out and sought out a look or an aesthetic, it just sort of organically evolved over time.

Juliette: That being said, is there one overall unified message you personally, consciously or unconsciously, are trying to express?

Heather: There's an element to some of the artists that we work with that is political and dealing with issues of race, class, and gender. A lot of them deal with this idea of colonialism, of somebody coming to an area and taking it over or looking for something, one way or another.

Juliette: Finally, my Proust questionnaire moment. If you could represent any artist, who is no longer with us, who would it be?

Alex: Leonardo Di Vinci. I'd like to have him do a show of bicycle related contraptions.

Heather: Marcel Duchamp.

Juliette: Those dudes are not from America, right?

Alex and Heather: Right.

Juliette: So what you're saying is, you could, very easily, have more foreign policy experience that Sarah Palin...*

*LA2DAY contacted Sarah Palin for comment, but her rep said she was out skinning a moose and could not be disturbed.

THE DETAILS: Taylor De Cordoba
2660 S La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
310. 559.9156
310.559.9157
www.taylordecordoba.com

CURRENT EXHIBIT: Kyle Field's More Country Questions
November 1st, 2008 - December 20th, 2008
Sasha Bezzubov & Jessica Sucher

* "The Searchers" examines various aspects of Western spiritual tourism in India and features large scale photographs taken at sites including the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune, the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, and the Mahabodi Temple in Bodh Gaya. Bezzubov and Sucher investigate the lure of India's rich religious history in utopian communities, yoga centers, and meditation retreats that cater to Western seekers.

Story by Juliette Clair.

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